trampled may 13 2017 - save the mallards

So this week was weird. As i said – last weekend was silent. And so refreshing. But monday morning came and at 530 the noises started and by 7am everything was loud as per usual. Loud in the am, loud after i got home from work. They tend to work till 6pm. Evening was fine – usual piles of dirt and debris and cranes and trucks all over.

Tuesday seemed the same. Long loud day.

Wednesday started very different. Rumbling at 530 like normal, general noise till about 7am, and then there was a noise, like a large machine was breaking up concrete, and it woke us. Awake enough to feel the house roll. The framed art on our bedroom wall rattled. So did the mirror. And then it happened again, and again. Loud banging in the lot, house rolling like an earthquake hit it. This happened, on and off, for over 35 minutes. Some quakes were a minute apart, some were every 3 to 5 minutes. Eveything in the house shook each time the tremors came.

I got out of bed and emailed one of the project supervisors to ask what was going on, because this was not something we had encountered in the last 5 months. He wrote back and said a piece of equipment was adjusted at 730 which may have caused the issue, and i explained in full detail what the previous 5 months were like and what was so diff about wed morning. He said he would look into it.

By wednesday afternoon, a seismagraph had been installed across the street and just to the left of our house. It is in a yellow cooler looking plastic box, and has an antenae that sticks up and a probe that goes down into the earth. Well, i thought, at least they are monitoring what's up.

All the work done on thurs and friday this week was quieter – all the cranes were in quieter gears. There was less noise and less rumbling. It was weird. I do not know if the quiet is simply because they realized they were being too loud for the paramaters they are working in, or if they turned everything down because now they are being recorded. But whatever – it was nice to have al ittle quieter of an experince.

Except that wed morning really threw us both for a loop. It was scary to have the house tremble like that. To have it happen so many times in a 35 or 40 minute time frame. What is that doing to our foundation and our sewer system? Ugh.

And now today is saturday. They started before 7am and just now finished at 6pm. The scene is ugly. So many huge piles of dirt and cement goo and machinery everywhere. It looks like a bomb went off. However – the big red bodied crane that has been parked in front of our living room window since january 2^nd has now been moved. It is elsewhere. It seems weird to look out and see it gone. I'm thankful – and maybe someone finally realized what a burden on the neighborhood that crane was. No matter where you were or who you were you could see it. It was part of why we could not sell our house. Maybe this means we will have better luck in a month or so.....

the crane that has moved - it sat in this spot for 5 months

the last tidbit from this week is that we're seeing and hearing how many animals that previously lived in the acres of clear cut forest, and in the wetlands on FORD property that were drained, now are trying to find homes. So many new birds in our trees, and so many more birds. More raccons and possums. The coyotes went to the henry ford estate and to the area near outer drive and ford road, or greenfield and ann arbor trail. And the rats went toward oakwood and outer d rive – residents are reporting rats the size of cats in their streets. Here – we had a momma mallard and her 15 babies IN OUR YARD looking for a safe place to make their home. Carl managed to keep the dogs away from them, and helped them out of the yard and down the street. But there is no water in our area – they had to go across one or 2 VERY busy streets to get anwhere close to a pond to be safe in. Momma mallard came home to where her instincts said she should be, and her home was gone. I hope she found somewhere safe to be. I hope we all do.